Sunday, October 30, 2005

re-united

my 10-year reunion last night is full of juicy morsels. i don't really have time to post much of the details, save for the fact that our school's "it girl" (you know who i'm talking about) called me a "naughty little number" for some innocuous reason. it was quite amusing.

despite the high cost of attendance, it was full of everything you could want from a get-together with former classmates: chicken marsala, an open bar, a really long video montage with songs like "eye of the tiger" and "forever young", and a dj circa 1989 (did we really want to hear "brass monkey" and "the humpty hump"?). i should have known what was coming when we had this exchange:

me: do you have beck? two turntables & a microphone?dj: baby got back?me (louder): no! beck! two turntables & a microphone! dj: i'll look into that.

yeah, he looked REAL hard. overall, it was worth it. i got me some writing fodder. and a classic keepsake/memory book. you know: a spiral bound booklet about the size of a steno pad with black & white scanned photos and self-written bios. on those, my favorite came from an alum whose occupation is "entertainment, fashion". when asked what she's been up to the past 10 years, she wrote: "i like light bulbs, protazoa, glue".

i've spent about 5 minutes trying to come up with some hip witticism to offset that and i just can't do it.

Friday, October 28, 2005

broadcast

a totally rockin' show last night, but too crowded for me. standing-room shows are pretty common for small venues, but the cramped quarters & pushing kind of grate on me after a while. in addition, the show didn't actually start until about 11:40 at night. while this is fun, it's hard to stay awake after working all day and coming home to the couch and the cats and 3 episodes of various law & order spinoffs (2 criminal intent, 1 svu). i'm kicking myself for not being more disciplined about my homework & wonder about next month's noveling. i think i'll just give up the tv altogether. blogging may be a bit slim, too, considering all the stuff i've got going anyway.as a side note, i've uploaded a bunch of photos on flickr this morning (in random order, i might add--some of the "most recent" are actually a couple weeks old!). i hope to have many tales to tell after being reunited with long lost alums.

Thursday, October 27, 2005

the nordstroms piano phenomenon

dear reader, be warned. radiohead is cool. listening to richard clayderman do radiohead is NOT cool. therefore i beg you: by all means avoid christopher o'riley's radiohead "tributes". it is a fallacy and the man should be whipped with a thousand wet noodles. i think if i brought the album home to my parents, even they would say they like radiohead. and that, well, that's just sick. not to mention darned near impossible.

i failed to mention here that if you're really hankering for radiohead sans voice, brad mehldau is the ticket. he's played at largo in LA a number of times and is an incroyable jazz pianist. highly recommended.

NaNoWriMo

i've officially committed. are there any readers out there on the 'net who are also participating in National Novel Writing Month in november? if so, brave souls, leave a note in the comments box. and, if you've even been contemplating it, i encourage you to give it a go: i don't even think i broke 3,000 words last year. however, i've picked up chris baty's "no plot? no problem!" and cruised through 30% of it on my day off. it's very encouraging & an easy read. and, it's not as though i don't have a busy schedule as it is, but there's something very romantic about the whole noveling thing.

Thursday, October 20, 2005

labor of love

i'm pregnant. with hope. for uci to love me.

i don't know that many things in life get me worked up as much as this. i will be hearing from uci between now and the 31st.

it's been an interesting month not to post as much as i typically do, but i won't deny the reprieve is doing me good. school has been beating me up on a regular basis, and with those 5am feedings for the kitties (i've learned to lock the door & fall asleep poste-haste) i think everything is just blurring right by me. somewhere in my head it's december already & i wake up wondering what happened to my homework and why none of the holiday shopping is done. folks, it's gonna be an amazon christmas. you can bet your bottom dollar. or, if you get memorablia that says "paul mccartney" or "u2" or "broadcast", you'll know where i've been. all those ambitions to knit everyone beautiful scarves is lost: who has the time when i'm either typing or thumbing through text books! honestly!

as it is, we have a wedding this saturday and i need to get a gift, a dress (wearable now & next august: congrats to lauren!), and a card. oh yeah, and all that homework??? argh.

so, needless to say, i'm busy, but generally doing good with life. for the first time in a while, i can look around at our comfy & cluttered abode and relax (unless i think moxie's sneaking about on the kitchen counter again). i am content with paul mccartney singing in the background & blogging on my iBook & the prospect of working 19.5 hours with the bank and going to school. in general, i have a great deal to be thankful for and i'm learning more & more to count these blessings. i think this is the peace that passes all understanding. it's certainly not anything i've done.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

silence is...golden?

i wish i could just get over it. but i haven't heard from uci and wait, that means this post shouldn't exist.

darn you, socks! darn you!

sociology is a beast and i think i missed my midnight cutoff for the paper. e-gads! there go my straight-A dreams (i haven't gotten those since junior high though. so, who am i kidding. i'll take a B!).

moxie lost his first tooth.

i celebrated the nephews birthday at disneyland (go ahead--no wonder the paper didn't get done in time!). and i just remembered i didn't call him yesterday. e-gads! i'm a bad auntie!

i got a B on my geography midterm. yeah! B!

i did some laundry. i put it in a basket. i failed to fold the unmentionables & the whites are still in the dryer.

the job front is shifting. more later: i'm not sure where i'm headed, if anywhere. update: i'm staying with my current employer, same office, and reducing my hours. it's a win-win situation (except for my coworker, who is leaving because of working 2 jobs and taking a full load of classes. she will be missed!)

i forgot to take my tea with me to work. angel's dream tea! ah, reverie.

i have a new tinker bell travel mug. i love it. she is everything i am not.

i have to go empty the cat box before i go to bed.

it's cold in here. josh is asleep in the other room and the air i'm sucking in through my nose might as well crystalize and form icicles in my nostrils.

i need a haircut. a massage. a chiropractic adjustment. and maybe some good acupuncture.

i don't care about proofing this post.

i do care about ditching my daniel lanois tickets. i think my craigslist buyer fell through and the show is on saturday. any takers in the oc? email me @ muse [at] furiousmuse dot com. i'm going to a wedding instead. 4 tickets @ $25/each (slightly discounted from the ticketmaster price) altogether or in pairs.

Sunday, October 09, 2005

survey

just a brief post...my last until i hear from uci. my friend's brother's girlfriend (...) is at usc and needs responses to a survey about blogging. if you would be so kind to take about 7 minutes of your time to go here to fill it out. it concerns blogging and various sources from which you gather your news.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

it's a revolution

josh & i saw sigur ros last night at the hollywood bowl. were it not for our friend justin, i would never have thought to purchase tickets. the show was amazing and leaves me reeling in its wake. if you're feeling cheeky, check out this video for a sample of their brilliance in composition, both in film & sound. i hope you have broadband.

i'm on watch/listen to the video number three as i write this because i just can't get enough. i don't normally jest about musicians i admire, but i did (jokingly) ask josh if the lead singer is a castrato. he sits vocally in his falsetto range the entire duration of the set and it's mildly unnerving to think that a boy can sing higher than i can (not that i'm much of a singer, but my ambitions are such that i might one day hit that high note christine is scripted for in lloyd webber's phantom of the opera).

jonsi played amazing guitar: he frequently used a bow to drone out growly electric tones from his...oh, don't even make me guess what kind of electric guitar it was. but it was so...cool. see how dumb my writing gets when i try to express my appreciation for music? when georg grabbed a stick and began pulsing out single note bass rhythms, i melted. ever a fan of the minimalist school, i latched on instantly to that and orri's mad, mad drumming. it would be unfair to overlook kjarri's talent on the keyboards which, though seemingly indistinguishable among a grouping of more prominent instruments, would be missed if he went awol mid-performance. to complement the group further, the icelandic band was joined by their cohorts, the amina string quartet. so much talent in their adept fingers, hands, and wrists. they executed complex rhythms and plucked ferociously during one the the pieces and it weaved all the music together so perfectly. i am simply in awe of the accomplishment i witnessed at the 'bowl. it leaves me stupefied. and perfectly stupid with words which fail to capture the absolute truths i seek to express. if you're in doubt, go to their site and download some of their work and judge for yourself. (and, if you're still in doubt after that, meet me back at this post and we'll duke it out in the comments box, sucka!)

again, i will proclaim that music students a decade from now will be studying bjork, sigur ros, and radiohead based on the innovations they are making to modern composition. i've studied enough theory in my former days as a music major to know this. and, if my predictions are false, then shame on those textbook authors and the creators of curriculum. it would be an absolute travesty, an offense to all things sacred in the world of music.

i feel so strongly about music sometimes i wonder if i shouldn't be majoring in it: music history or something that doesn't necessarily expect a dedicated person to perform like a trained monkey at the sound of a buzzer. it's not as though i don't enjoy performing, mind you, but the pressure i felt as a teenager left a bad taste in my mouth. but my love of music goes so far beyond words: it burrowed into the caverns of my soul and took up residence so long ago that i almost feel as though i might die without my ability to enjoy it. to feast on it like a wonderful piece of ripe fruit which has been perfectly formed and warmed by the sun on cool days until it reaches such perfection that it drips from your mouth with a sweetness so crystal clear that your taste buds want to sing & dance with delight at the pristine flavor. and i look at my analogy & laugh because i still realize that it doesn't come close to respecting my love for music!

right now, i'm so in love with sigur ros. the new paul mccartney album may be a little lonely for a while (but i like that one, too!). go check them out.

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

inchoate

it's the end of the year, but i feel as though i'm in the beginning stages of this major flux in my life and the closer It gets (aka The Letter from UCI), the more nerve-wrecked (yes, wrecked) i am.

work has been weird lately. not work itself, but customers. one guy was behaving so badly that we phoned the police. he was raising his voice & ordering us around and i felt SO uncomfortable. the emotion has burned off now that 5 or 6 days have passed since that event and i've moved on. but i was really burned up about it for a good 5 hours after it happened. no one wants the police to come into their work, i don't care who you work for: it's never a good sign.

then there's that random woman who refuses to let me help her. and i just can't think what i did to offend her. i wish she'd give me a chance to make amends. instead, i just stand there in stupified silence, looking dejected and disappointed. until the next customer comes along and then everything is fine. (i realize this is totally & completely the woman's method of thought: what did i do ? it must be my fault! truth is, it's absolutely a mystery. so i'm not going to worry about it.)

dino's in town again, which hannah & max in tow, which is great. our house is a few significant degrees cleaner because of it. yea, us!

i want to hear from UCI sooner, not later. i want to cease living in limbo. i want to have a firm path before me and know where i'm going.